Padilla 1

Carmen Padilla
WRIT 2
Professor Wilson
November 8, 2015

Who are you?

Chicano/a. Its not a term that appears in any US legal document. In fact there are only five
terms used to identify race in the US: White, African-American, Native-American, Asian, Pacific
Islander, and Hispanic. There is no Chicano/a. Why? Well, Chicano is a relatively new term used
to describe Americans of Mexican descent. In twenty years Chicano/as will make up about one
third of the total US population, yet Chicano/as have been treated as second class citizens ever
since the inception of the US in 1776. Once a derogatory term, Chicano/a is now used with pride
by many who identify themselves as such and as a result has introduced an field of study known
as Chicano/a Studies. In order to construct a more activist outlook on life in respect to social
injustices, Chicano/a Studies as a discourse community strives to provide students with tools such
as historical accuracy/illumination, emotional appeal, and personal accounts
Before analyzing the goal of the community and how the community achieves this goal, it
is important note that the population of my class (UCSB Chicano/a Studies 1A: History) mirrors
the population of the entire Chicano/a Studies discourse community. Chicano/as form about 75%
of the community, while 25% are those interested in learning about and supporting the Chicano/a
community. This is an important factor because it allows for a valuable connection between author
and audience, established through the authors use of emotional appeal through personal
anecdotes.

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As a student of Chicano/a Studies 1A, I have learned that the discourse community values
the progression from learners to activists. Professor Armbruster in the objectives of the class states
that, Chicano/a Studies is about facing and transforming reality. He deems that in order to
become an activist, one must first learn about ones history. He places a very strong emphasis on
action. (Armbruster, 2015) Like Armbruster, the UCSB Chicano/a Studies department homepage
focuses on engaging students in the history, politics, and culture of Chicano/as in order to better
link theory with practice, and the academy with the community. The department focuses on
taking the skills learned in the classroom and using these to become activists within the
community. (UCSB CH ST, 2015) Chicano/a Studies aims for each student to maintain a toolkit
in order to better understand the struggles of the Chicano/a community in order to become involved
in activist circles.
In order to reach this goal, Chicano/a Studies strives to hand each student a toolkit to tackle
different current social issues. Historical accuracy and illumination are among these tools.
Historical accuracy is the correct presentation of facts such as statistics, dates, and happenings. For
example, Harvest of Empire is a book about the United States reaping the effects of having
sown Latin American countries economic, cultural and political instability. (Gonzalez, 2011) One
of these reapings is an enormous flux of immigration to the US with Mexico in the lead at 33
million immigrants, followed by Puerto Ricans at 5 million (Gonzalez, 2011) and so on .These
historical statistics are compiled by the US Census and are in no way skewed by the author Jose
Gonzalez, instead Gonzalez is consistent in presenting historical facts such as they are. He does
not skew history by falsifying facts. Another example of historical accuracy is presented in Stolls
article Comprehensive Immigration Reform and US Labor Markets where he uses statistics

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such as 60% of construction workers in Texas are Latino in order to engage the audience. This
is effective because his argument is taking a controversial stance that without proper historical
accuracy can confuse or misinform his reader. Basically the aauthors within the community are
appropriately communicating the data compiled by trustworthy sources in order to enhance their
arguments and ultimately spark readers into action. (Stoll, 2015) Historical accuracy is a strategy
employed to eliminate false perceptions. These repel the authors credibility and essentially
deteriorate the writers argument. Another strategy used to counter false perception is historical
illumination.
Instead of keeping certain fragments of history in the dark, Chicano/a Studies strives to
illuminate minority history. For example, Howard Zinn not only presents the Anglo conquistadores
entering new territories but also the indigenous population decimation caused by the Anglo
invaders in his article Columbus, Indians, and Human Progress(Zinn, 1997). It is important to
illuminate the multifaceted history of different events because only through illumination will the
understanding necessary to motivate action appear. The goal of Chicano/a Studies is to fuel
activism through understanding and appeal to emotion.
Along with historical accuracy and illumination, Chicano/a studies depends heavily on
appeal to emotion. Emotional appeal is a rhetorical strategy that uses the readers heart to
understand a text. Chicano/a professors aim to incite change outside of the classroom and so they
use emotional appeal to create a connection between students and to provoke action. For example,
my Chicano Studies professor Armbruster during the final moments of lecture had all students exit
the hall and continue class outside at the IV memorial Park. After he presented a spoken word
about why we learn Chicano/a, he asked for us to announce the names of those who gave us the

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reason to be here. As people chanted names of loved ones, the emotional connection to the material
had been established. This whole event is an example of a heartfelt emotional appeal. He allowed
us to remember why we are here which created a bridge between the content and ourselves. It is
important to note the population of the class most of us are in fact Chicano/as and so when
Armbruster asks the class why we are here it is because of our families who supported us despite
the difficulties we faced.
Emotional appeal is an important tool for students of this community to use because the
connection established with the audience an author or professor incites action. There are many
situations in which emotional appeal aids historical illumination. Different sides of history are not
always presented, especially in public schools. Appealing to an audiences emotion forces the
writer to showcase different perspectives of history such as the Native American genocide that
took place in early 16th century. This genocide is not prominent in history whereas the Columbus,
Pizarro, and Cortes conquests of America is. Emotional appeal is employed in order to question
the reason behind this, illuminating a different historical event. For example, the article We Take
Nothing by Conquest, Thank God by Howard Zinn persuades the audience that the United States
is not a benevolent nation that takes other nations under its wing for the sake of wellbeing and
democracy, but because of money. (Zinn, 1997) Much like Zinn, Gonzalez states that the
economy has dictated much of our involvement in wars such as the Mexican-American war in
1846, where the US gained half of Mexico with only 15 million dollars. (Gonzalez, 2011)
Gonzalez and Zinn demonstrate different tools working together to build activism. Whereas Zinn
focuses on Native American genocide caused by Anglo settlers thus illuminating the effect of
emotional appeal, Gonzalez takes a more factual position and so aligns historical accuracy with

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illumination. Among the tools necessary to incite action within the newer members of the
community is personal accounts.
The use of personal accounts heightens the connection between audience and author by
sparking outrage and sadness. This develops the activist outlook that is the goal and essence of
Chicano/a studies. Personal accounts appeal to emotion, or the natural processes of the mind and
many times emotional appeal can supersede other types of persuasion. An example from my
Chicano/ Studies class that effectively showcases personal accounts appealing to emotion begins
with the professor calling for comments about a narrative assigned for reading. The Circuit
portrays the life of a young boy who is a migrant farm worker and the struggles he faces. (Jimenez,
1997) A female student towards the back of the lecture hall comments on the book relating the
struggles of the protagonist to her own. She shares how she has worked the Central Californian
farms with her parents her whole life, and she continues to do so in the summers because of rising
tuition. She mumbles through her tears and the hall is quiet as she finishes up her personal account.
The class claps for her and her struggles. This clearly shows how the Chicano/a Studies community
becomes moved through personal accounts. The population of the class mirrors the population of
the Chicano/a Studies discourse community. Through the population connection, the audience is
able to directly relate to the young womans use of emotional appeal through personal account.
This fuels the goal of the community which is to take action against social injustices such as those
faced by the Chicano protagonist of The Circuit and the young woman from the back of
Chicano/a Studies class.
This goal is maintained through the use of historical illumination, accuracy, emotional
appeal and personal accounts. These all lead to a heightened sense of activism within the

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community who tackle injustices. An example of an activist outlook is Alice McGrath and the use
of her life by Professor Armbruster as a call to action. Alice McGrath is a Jewish activist who
worked on the controversial Los Angeles Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee, she helped 13 young
Mexicans from wrongful incarceration. In doing so she formed a coalition of different minority
races in fighting injustices. Alice McGrath is an experienced member of the community and her
activist outlook and involvement in many campaigns against social injustices present in the US,
such as the Zoot Suit Riots and Nicaraguan missions, is what all novices of the community aspire
to. Coalition, coalition, coalition! is the rallying cry of Alice McGrath (Armbruster). Armbruster
uses this call to spark the class in thinking about the material more passionately and emotionally
in order to better feel a connection to the content being discussed, which, again through the
population bridge actually affects the class. When an audience feels connected to the content they
are more likely to take action against present injustices.
The Chicano/a Studies community attempts to hand each student a toolkit with valuable
conventions in an effort to eradicate social injustices, among these is historical accuracy, historical
illumination, and emotional appeal through personal accounts. These aid the community in its
progression from learners/novices to activists/experts. The call to action against social injustices
affecting the Chicano/a community is instilled in all the forms of communication in this
community, from academic articles to personal accounts.

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Works Cited
Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval. Fall Quarter 2015 Chicana/o Studies 1A: Introduction to
Chicana/o Studies (History). Chicano/a Studies Department UCSB.
"Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies - UC Santa Barbara." Department of Chicana
and Chicano Studies - UC Santa Barbara. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Juan Gonzlez. 2011. Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (Revised
Edition). New York: Penguin.
Francisco Jimnez. 1997. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
David Stoll. 2015. Comprehensive Immigration and U.S. Labor Markets: Dilemma for
Progressive Labor. New Labor Forum. Sage Publications Inc. 24.1 (2015): 76-85.
Howard Zinn. 1997. A people's history of the United States. New York. New York Press.